Heat
by ma-cherie-cote
Summary: Gibbs is shot and a unlikely visitor shows up during the scene. Tiva. One-shot.


There's an uneasiness that ghosts across the newly formed goose bumps on her skin as he breathes in deeply within the crook of her neck. She can feel his lips sweep across delicately, running shivers down her spine and his hand clings to her shining chocolate curls. She wasn't one to cry...hell, neither was he, but the tears are coming down her face faster than she expected and she can feel an obvious wetness on her neck. Her arms are clasped tightly together around his shoulders, closing together around his neck. His other hand is gripped to her waist, keeping her in place so she doesn't run.

Run.

An action he was accustomed to when it came to her natural instincts when situations became too deep, too much for her flight or fight response to take in, something she was biologically born with and couldn't shake.

The reunion was more dramatic than Ziva had anticipated. A mission she took on in Iraq quickly deferred into a reunion with her best friend, her heart... her soulmate. Turning the corner into a town square where shots were just fired, Ziva's last thought was lost when she saw her old boss on the ground, covered in blood and Tony, feet away, head to head with a much younger person. Her heart dropped, adrenaline overwhelms her veins and panic sets in at the sight before her. A suicide bomber, just a child from what she took in by staring at the scene in front of her.

She's keeping him there like all of this is some extraordinary dream and he might vanish at any moment.

They're in a small, dingy hotel room that is a few blocks away from the hospital where Gibbs is at. The nurses and doctors shushing Ziva and Tony away for the night as they take their elder boss into surgery. Neither Tony or Ziva felt like eating, too stressed from everything that currently just happened so, they simply scour the area for a place to stay. When they find an out dated place, Tony reserves the room quickly at the front desk from a older woman who eyes Ziva carefully.

"You know her?" Tony asks as they descend the stairs and up to the room he has just booked for the two of them.

Ziva nods, not willing to say anymore and follows Tony's lead to their room. He unlocks the door rather easily considering there isn't much to the door in form of a lock. She makes a face that tells Tony to take note of her feeling unsafe at the moment. Something he had never thought his ninja would be capable of feeling.

It's clear their past two years apart has changed both of them dramatically, but for the better.

"Not too bad if you like the smell of old falafel and prostitutes," He jokes as he peers out the grungy shades of the window before closing them again.

He can hear Ziva moving around the bathroom, inspecting for anyone to pop out and attack them.

 _Same old ninja._

"It will have to do. I need a shower terribly," She says and begins stripping of her clothing. The dead heat of the desert (much alike Somalia conditions) draining her body from the sudden turn of humidity into coolness.

He watches intensely, a sight he hasn't seen far too long and the ache for her grows on him.

Once all her clothes are off, Ziva retorts to the bathroom and turns the knob in order to turn the shower on. She groans when she feels there isn't any hot water, but of course why would there be here? Tony hears her muffled protests and enters the bathroom, questioning what her problem is.

"There is no hot water. I am freezing," He can hear her teeth chatter from the iciness of the water.

He looks around for a moment, pondering how to fix the problem. There really isn't any way for the hotel to warm up the water if it is already cold... He glances in the mirror at himself and slowly takes his coat off, followed by his shirt. He unbuckles the belt of his pants fast, waiting for Ziva to wonder what the hell he's doing in the bathroom while she takes a shower.

Socks off, he pulls the curtain back and steps into the shower.

Ziva gasps at the sudden contact of his arms around her waist, "What the hell are you doing?!"

She tries to squirm away from him, shielding the private parts of her body with her arms causing him to chuckle.

"We both need showers and if it's cold, we minds well use body heat to take a warmer shower," He tries to state matter of factly at her and she gaffs.

"This is aburd," She pouts and he's suddenly washing her back with the soap.

She can't deny that his hands on her body make her long for him and to go back to the way everything was before... Before she refused to fly back to the states with him.

"Relax," He soothes and starts to wash the dirt off her arms, "I promise I won't try any funny business."

Ziva snorts and his heart warms at the familiar sound. She's spinning around now much to his surprise, taking the soap and starts to wash his chest. Her fingers thread through his chest hair and she eyes his growing member, "Really, Dinozzo? No funny business at all?"

He pretends to act hurt, dipping down to kiss her forehead when she moves her washing to his arms and neck, "I'm sorry, it's natural whenever you're around. I swear," He smirks.

She laughs, making him turn around so she can begin her process on his back. "I am sure Zoe would not be thrilled about this, yes?"

Tony's heart drops and he tries to turn around, but she won't let him. "How did you find out?"

"Abby. She requested that I not come home to see you because you acquired a serious relationship," Her tone is quiet, a whisper at most and she feels him tense under her touch.

The water is running even colder now, not just because of the change in topic, but because they've now been in the shower for far too long while Tony thinks of something to say with the anger burdening.

"I didn't know she told you that-" he starts, but is cut off.

"It does not matter," She washes slowly over a new scar on his back and wonders where it came from.

"Yes it does, Ziva!" His voice is louder now, a shout that echoes off the paper thin walls. "Fuck- why would she even say that to you?! She knew Zoe could never... Could never be you. It wasn't even that serious. God damn it!" His fist hits the wall of the shower and the stall shakes.

"Stop," Ziva warns in a hush and presses her breasts into the middle of his back, her arms wrapping around his torso. "You do not want to break this shitty hotel and have to buy it," She leaves a light kiss on the scar between his shoulder blades that she was feeling earlier.

His lungs are quivering, fighting to hold back the tears escaping his eyes when he realizes that she in fact was going to come home...to him...sooner than now. And, to make matters worse his team, the people he called family had fucked everything up.

 _They could've been happy._ They could've been living in an apartment together in downtown DC and looking into venues for a small, quiet wedding. But instead, they were oceans apart and with other people. At least, he was and that hurt him even more. He was off pretending to be happy with a woman that could barely stop him from choking down the daily Prozac's while Ziva was doing everything she could to come home to him.

"I'm so sorry," He whispered, her body still wrapped around his and the water becoming a spray. "I was desperate for you to come home, I tried so hard to move on, but I couldn't. I- I wish I had known, Ziva..." He turned around in her embrace, grabbing her by the waist and pulling them closer with their foreheads touching.

She exhaled loudly, "I know, my love," her eyes closed softly and she shivered when his lips grazed across her ear.

"Nothing that Abby told you was true. I promise. You have always been the one and I've been a complete utter mess without you. You have to believe me,"

"I do," She whispered back, her arms moving to wrap around his neck.

"Come on, it's Antartica in here. Let's get out of here," He smiled and stepped out of the shower, helping Ziva out with him. He carefully wrapped one of the small hotel towels around her body and she cradled it to herself tightly in order to get warmer. Taking one of the towels for himself, he wrapped it around his waist and retreated back out to the bedroom. The air was much warmer and he threw back the sheets of the bed. Ziva climbed in quickly beside him, his arms returning around her body. She snuggled up closely, his head in the crook of her neck as he fixed the sheets of the bed around them.

"I will come home... If you would like me to," She spoke after a few minutes of silence defying the air.

Tony kissed her collarbone, "There's nothing I would want more in the world than my soulmate home, sweet cheeks."

"Your soulmate, huh?" She grinned, her heart skipping a beat.

"Yeah, do you believe in them?" His head rose, a smirk appearing on his face as he kissed her lips softly.

She laughed, recalling the memory of her asking him that same question and hit him playfully. "Mhm. But I think that the best soulmates are the ones who cannot live without each other, I guess."

Striking a nerve, his heart thumping out of his chest, Tony sat up and grabbed her head with both of his hands. His hands tangled in her brunette, coconut aroma of hair and he kissed her roughly, sealing everything he ever wanted to say to her in that dead heat of a desert.


End file.
